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This 2018 concept album is about reckoning, celebrating, and reclaiming what it means to be American. We discuss how Monáe uses her platform to advocate for queer and black women while working with big record labels to also produce commercial success.

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This is a special repost of the first episode of our Patreon-only series, SuperKINGcontext.

Stephen King's first novel was adapted into this 1976 cautionary movie about adolescence, bullying, and female representation by a team of middle-aged men. How does the male gaze impact this story that is so often referred to as "feminist"?

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This political comedy podcast makes over a million dollars a year from its Patreon subscribers alone. We try to unpack how it gets made while learning more about the personal values associated with the "dirtbag left."

This 2015 comic mixes folklore and magic with science and technology. We discuss how each creator brings their own experimentation to the project, and how it's been received by the comic book industry and its more philosophical readers.

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This collection of non-fiction essays attempts to define two modes of storytelling by providing examples of each from popular culture. We talk about how Fisher's argument fits into our larger discussions of horror stories and how his definitions may be useful for considering the end of capitalism.

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Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic!

This 2009 TV show, helmed by Joss Whedon, was meant to be a thematic exploration of identity and sexuality but many have argued about its problematic story. Was that because of corporate interference or Whedon's own issues with feminist representation?

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THIS IS A REPOST OF A 2016 EPISODE. As the release of the film JOKER looms, we revisit our discussion about Batman, the Joker, and ambiguity.

Looking back on the Batman film “The Dark Knight,” does it stand for anything? Or does it simply soak up whatever morals we bring to it? Christopher Nolan’s intentions remain mysterious, but we do our best to figure them out.

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Thank you to our Co-producer patron Miriam Meaney for selecting this week's topic!

This 1985 Peter Greenaway film approaches storytelling with the perspective that there is no meaning to reality despite our organized attempts to create it. We talk about how Greenaway uses the traditions of Dutch paintings and anatomical animal studies to get this message across or frustrate us by trying.

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Thank you to our Co-producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic!

This 2002 Japanese art film is slow, meticulously shot, and has wonderful, ornate costumes. We discuss how it was influenced by a form of traditional puppetry but should be approached more like a meditative painting.

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In this 1978 non-fiction book, Gardner argues that art and writing should be moral and that his peers in the literary community are immoral for failing to uphold this tradition. We discuss Gardner's tragic life story while trying to process this debate and whether he was right, wrong or just an asshole.

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This podcast started in 2012 as a fictional update from a strange, supernatural town. With guest Dave Moore, we discuss how this successful production is made while unpacking the utopian ideal it creates with a kind of drab mundanity.

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This 2005 video game tried to capture the atmosphere and experience of H. P. Lovecraft's mythos. It is now called a commercial failure and a cult classic. We discuss its unique, immersive gameplay, and its Lovecraftian approach to knowledge as a thing to fear.

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This 1986 horror film adapted an H.P. Lovecraft story into a transgressive "video nasty" about repressed sexuality. We learn about the production methods that brought its "pineal glands" to life, while discussing Lovecraft's fear of sex in contrast with From Beyond's smashing of taboos.

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This 2016 novel explores sci-fi and horror in the 1950s from the perspective of an African-American family already accustomed to prejudice and dread. We have an uncomfortable conversation about how it addresses H.P. Lovecraft's racism and the question of whether a white author should tell stories about the black experience.

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This album from 2000 came out more than 20 years into the career of this genre fusing music group. We look at their commercial apex and their struggles with racist expectations to understand what led to this attempt at a new beginning.

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This 2017 Netflix television show is a critically acclaimed fictional depiction of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that were popular in the 1980s. We discuss how the show's creators handle representation of stereotypes while also criticizing the worst of America's fears.

This 2014 collection of short horror stories shows a prolific author experimenting with different tropes and genres to find wonder in making sense of the world. We discuss Jones’s unique writing process to understand the importance he gives horror.

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This 1985 fantasy film is remembered fondly by our generation, but may not hold up under re-examination. We look at the studio process it was made under, while thinking about how it tries to subvert our expectations of fairy tales.

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This 1998 horror manga depicts a Japanese town that plunges into chaos in the face of the symbolic spiral. We look at how Ito conceived Uzumaki, while struggling with big philosophical ideas like nihilism, rationalism and routine, meticulous dread in the face of our cosmic insignificance.

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This 2018 spy thriller is praised for its humor and subversion by critics and audiences alike. We discuss how it represents female and queer identities without pinning down either as templates or tropes.

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This repost of our two Nick Cave episodes is a mess of grief, awe, love, and aspiration.

Part 1: Nick Cave's Lament

In anticipation of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album “Skeleton Tree” and its accompanying documentary “One More Time With Feeling,” we discuss the tragedy of losing a child and its effect on art, performance and persona.

Part 2: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree

By becoming a more vulnerable frontman, Nick Cave has transformed after a major tragedy. To understand this better, we cover his latest album Skeleton Tree, the companion film One More Time With Feeling and the Bad Seeds' latest North American tour.

In an unusually giddy, slaphappy episode, Charlie & Christian try to understand how Game of Thrones' sixth season was made. When does an adaptation stop being an adaptation? What happens when it passes -- and surpasses -- its source material?

Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic!

This 1997 Australian alternative rock record was a massive success in its home country, but is something we (the hosts) were totally unfamiliar with. We look at how music subjectively builds identity for some "young people" to understand why Unit is so important to adults looking back on their outsider adolescence.

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This 2015 Vertigo comic by Tom King and Mitch Gerads sets a murder mystery in the Iraq War in 2004. We discuss how the creators strived for accuracy and reverence with this complex story while struggling with our own distaste for violence, glorification, and authority.

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